The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Sun. TUESDAY, JULY 21, 1942. GERMANY'S DRIVE TO THE EAST

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 170, 21 July 1942, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Sun. TUESDAY, JULY 21, 1942. GERMANY'S DRIVE TO THE EAST

QKHMAXY'S effort to drive the tied Army back to the Urals and to destroy it as a military force goes relentlessly on. There is no diminution in the strength and speed of the attack, no definite sign yet. that the Russian defence can break it. The Russian armies have been kept fairly intact during their retreat, but they have lost heavily in material, in equipment and in food resources. They have suffered equal losses before and have come back fighting, and If they can keep lip their valiant and stubborn defence until the November rains bring the mud and the snow they will have gone far, by the road of defeat, to victory. Germany must go forward, since she cannot go back; whether she can continue depends partly on the strength of the defence in depth which the Russians have been creating ever since they began to envisage an invasion from the west. Already the Red Army has lost all the ground so hardly regained during the winter, and this time ner strategists cannot afford to be so prodigal of space as they were when they lost territory to gain time. The losses so far sustained have been heavy, for the area over which the Hun has already swept includes some of the richest agrarian resources of Russia, some of the vital centres for the production of defence material, and the swing Is bringing u? ,f VPr np arer to the oil supplies of the Caucasus, supplies without which neither side can fight at its maximum beyond this year. The Russians have proved themselves stubborn fighters, animated by a spirit of determination, which stands unbroken in the face of the heaviest attacks and the bitterest losses, and though Hitler has over-run much of the territory he sought to conquer he still faces an army whose morale is unbroken.

If Russian generalship is as sound as the morale of the army the losses made so far will be retrieved, but that question has not yet been definitely answered. Timoshcnko, in the fighting retreat of last year, displayed generalship of a high order, particularly in quickly building up defence In depth after Budenny's ineptitude had caused the front line to crumble. The Germans have been quick to learn the methods of their opponents; they have studied Timoshenko's strategy throughout the winter, and we must be prepared for counter-strokes based upon efforts to defeat his defence plan. The readiness of the Germans to change th >ir whole plan of attack was very effectively demonstrated last year, when they abandoned the big blitz, so successful In Poland and Franco, for the "limited" blitz, a series of relatively •mall break-throughs and encirclements, which instead of smashing the •nemy at one blow—difficult on a front so long as that of the Russian— nibbled piecemeal at his weakest and least defensible areas. The plan succeeded, in part, until winter and Russian heroism broke it down before Moscow and the Caucasus were reached. But as a result of it the six hundred miles which sep. ~ated the Germans from their first objectives when they treacherously launched their attacks have been reduced to a depth varying from a hundred to fifty miles. While the Winning of those objectives now will not be final, it will unquestionably greatly weaken Russia's power of resistance, and the Indomitable Stalin can be relied upon to make the most desperate efforts of which his forces are capable to hold on to Moscow and the Caucasus. While they have lost heavily during their second retreat, the Russians have taken a heavy toli of the enemy, they have enormous reserves of men, they have Increased their munition and aerial supplies through the winter, their spirit is unconquerable, they have done much to build up war Industries far to the east, and with competent generalship they may •gain deny to the Nazis, as they did last year, their maximum objectives. Jr they do the writing is on the wall; Hitler may be able to sustain the struggle for a very long time, but he will not be able to win.